Halsey rose up.  It was a strong moment for him, for he had long seen that the spirit of retaliation, following hard on the spirit of defence, was the coming curse of his beloved church, and had prayed that he might be the means of helping to ward it off.  Here was one asking counsel who from the strength of his person and character might have influence among the avengers of blood, yet with his helpless wife and child beside him none felt more keenly than Halsey the force of the Danite’s arguments, and none knew better the multitude of Scripture prophecies that could be brought up in support of them.  In the strength of his need this man, who had been spending the precious time of many a hardly-won audience in dwelling on obscure poesies in books held sacred, now seemed to step forth into a sudden illumination of truth just as he stepped from the shadow of the poplar bole into the light of the fire.

“Friend, I did wrong to answer you in this matter from any part of Scripture save from the mouth of our most blessed Lord himself, for he alone is the gate by which we must enter into life, and I would have you to consider most carefully his life and words, and find out if there be any promise of blessedness to those who strike back when they are struck, or any command to punish the evil-doer, or any example for such punishment.  But if you would be more manly and more gallant than the Saviour of the world, I tell you it must be at your own peril, for he alone is the gate of that road which leads to everlasting life.”

There was a silence for some long moments.  Embers in the fire broke and fell; the horses cropped the grass; a nut or twig dropped somewhere among the adjacent trees.

“Well,” said the young Danite reflectively, “if that’s it, I guess I’ll have to take my fling first and seek salvation after; but Smith and Rigdon don’t only preach that sort of Gospel now; they are all for the Old Testament kind of thing, and the destroying angels in the Revelations.”

CHAPTER XI.

So near came the rumours of war that the Mormons of Haun’s Mill entered into a renewed compact of mutual peace with the Gentiles around them.  The place was about twenty miles below the town of Far West, on the same stream of Shoal Creek.  Around Far West the roads presently became very dangerous, haunted, it was said, by armed parties of bloodthirsty Gentiles who lay in wait for trains of Mormon emigrants coming from the east to the prophet’s city.  All travellers became alarmed; Halsey remained where he was; the people of the place accepted his pastoral services gladly.  A train of Gentile emigrants also waited at Haun’s Mill for the cessation of hostilities.

These emigrants were quiet folk and had children with them.  Susannah used to go out upon sunny days with her sturdy yearling, talking to all mothers, Gentile or Mormon, who carried little children.  The beauty of the season, the cloudless sun, gilded these few peaceful days.  Susannah compared her child with other children, marvelled at the baby intercourse he held with them, at the likes and dislikes displayed among these pigmy associates; and the other mothers had like sources of interest in these interviews.